Toronto 75 on The Esplanade | 99.97m | 29s | Harhay | a—A

Finally! This lot has been a glaring eyesore in an otherwise dense, and often pretty, neighbourhood. Let's hope we get something decent. If only there were a way to punch Church Street south to Lakeshore...
 
Harhay and Carttera bought this property in September for a cool 24 mill. I hope whatever is put here is sensitive to the location in this nbhd. Also, finally glad this has been sold off. High rise residential to come...
 
Harhay and Carttera bought this property in September for a cool 24 mill. I hope whatever is put here is sensitive to the location in this nbhd. Also, finally glad this has been sold off. High rise residential to come...
This is certainly a site crying out for something but to get value for the rather high land purchase price I can see they will want a great deal of height. It will also be interesting to see how the idea (in Lower Yonge Precinct discussions) of extending Church Street through (under) the rail berm to Cooper will affect their plans.
 
Off the top of my head, I'd be fine with them going pretty tall at the south end of the site so long as they maintained a consistent streetwall with the hotel and the apartment building on the East side of Church Street.
 
Off the top of my head, I'd be fine with them going pretty tall at the south end of the site so long as they maintained a consistent streetwall with the hotel and the apartment building on the East side of Church Street.
Yes, the streetwall needs to be maintained on both The Esplanade and Church but the problem with the site is that it is pretty small and there are apartment windows (from the building on top of the garage) on the south side - I doubt they would appreciate a tall tower there to cut off all their light.
 
Why would a potential extension of Church south impact this lot?
Church south of The Esplanade is now a very quiet street really only used to access the Green P garage. IF the idea of linking Church and Cooper goes ahead the link road will either go right into the current garage entrance or go under the garage. It may not affect the site all that much but it will change the area.
 
Given that this is the current terminus to Church, I don't see the idea of extending the street south of the tracks as anything more than a line on a 'potential connections' map. The width of the tracks and the existing residential building building make this complicated enough that the benefits just don't outweigh the cost(s).
 
Why would a potential extension of Church south impact this lot?

Depending on what the ROW width for a Church St. extension might be, the City may require some land to be dedicated/reserved for a future Church St. ROW widening, thereby impacting setbacks, density levels, etc.
 
Would increased traffic really make the area better?
The discussion about a possible link between Church and Cooper during the Lower Yonge Precinct consultations was that a link would better link the St Lawrence neighbourhood with the new Lower Yonge neighbourhood. Without it the only north-south links are at Lower Jarvis and Yonge - neither of which are very pedestrian & cyclist friendly. One suggestion was to create only a pedestrian/cycling link. The transportation part of this report is at http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-72599.pdf
 

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